St. Mark Basilica Visit

The group started their day at the Musco Archeologico Nazionale.  Culture Moment:  It holds a collection of ancient sculptures, including Greek originals, bronzes, ceramics, gems and coins in addition to the archaeological collection on loan  which includes Egyptian and Assyrian-Babylonian antiquities.  The museum is part of St. Mark’s square.  Official name of the square is Piazza San Marco.

On a side note, St. Mark’s Square  has hordes of people.  Everyday cruise ships dock and dump people into the square to see St. Mark’s.    Most of our group has tried to stay away from the square.  If you have a dream of sitting on an Italian Square, St. Mark’s intends to answer that dream.  People were playing the violin and piano at 9 in the morning so that you could drink coffee on the square watching  people.  There are pigeons so fat from all the feeding that they don’t  fly anymore.  There are vendors to sell all kinds of things.

At 11:00, Joyce lined everyone up and marched them through St. Mark’s square for the “Skip the Line” tour of St. Mark’s Basilica.  (Excellent value for 2 euro) We marched by all the people standing in line.  (It was awesome).  Then they turned the lights on inside (They don’t keep the Basilica lit all day)  and Joyce lined us up for the free (yes free) English tour.

Since no pictures, Longer History Moment:  The story goes that Mark, one the four Evangelists together with Luke, Mathew and John, was given the task of writing his Gospel by Peter himself and did so in Rome.  Venetian merchants often stopped at Alexandria to pray on the Saint Mark’s tomb. In 828 A.D., two Venetian merchants stole Saint Mark’s remains and brought them back to Venice by ship, after hiding them in a chest full of vegetables and pork to avoid strict Muslim control. When the saint’s body reached Venice it was welcomed in triumph and the Doge had a new church built as his tomb.  Owning a saint’s remains meant great earnings for a city. Veneration, at times of just a few bones, meant increased trade and cultural exchange. Furthermore, there are twelve Apostles, but only four Evangelists. Owning the entire body of one of them was an exceptional fact for Venice.

The English tour told the group interesting facts but once complete, they were free to complete the tour.  The free entry  line went something like this, get in line, shuffle in a counter clockwise direction through the church with an opportunity to purchase special admission and then exit.   Evidently, the group does not do well on their own.  Once released, they tried to go in the exit and into an area where a door had been left open.  The attendant was chasing them through the church (maybe he called it fast walking),  yelling “No, No, No” and clapping his hands at them.  (People should be more careful about leaving doors open).  It is an outstanding church but the group would have been disappointed if they had only done the St. Mark Shuffle.  Joyce did an outstanding job arranging the tour.

In our opinion, there are way too many people invading people’s personal space at St. Mark’s.  It makes Larry quack like a duck (Did we mention the quacking phenomena?) and Debbie photo bomb.  Jerry remains stoic and Joyce sometimes has been known to strongly suggest people move (We think that she might be Italian).  Greg and Don just have more wine.

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San Maria Della Salute – Guarding the entrance to the Grand Canal, this 17th-century domed church was commissioned by Venice’s plague survivors as thanks for salvation.

Santa Maria del Rosario (Gesuati) – The church of Gesuati, the biggest convent complex of the XVIII century in Venice, was built between 1726 and 1735 for the Dominicans, to replace the church alongside that had become too small for the faithful.

At the end of the day, we were all happy to ride the water bus even if it did whack the dock.